KILLER PANCAKE

Goldy Schulz, of Goldilocks Catering in Aspen Meadows, Colorado (The Last Suppers, etc.), is trying to tend to business while consoling a young boarder-helper, Julian Teller, who's recovering from a great shock. Beautiful Claire Satterfield, the love of his life, has been killed by a hit-run driver in the mall garage of upscale department store Prince and Grogan, where she was a rising star in sales for Mignon Cosmetics. On the fateful day of Claire's death, Goldy had catered the luncheon introducing Mignon's fall line amid jeers from a noisy animal-rights group (protesting cruelty to lab animals) fronted by manic Shaman Krill. Now, a blue rose found on the garage floor points to the presence of another of Claire's conquests—famed plant researcher Dr. Charles Braithewaite. Goldy is also puzzled by bumptious Reggie Hotchkiss, of Hotchkiss Skin and Hair, who's a constant visitor to the store's Mignon counter, presided over by Iongtime cosmetician Harriet Wells. Meanwhile, Goldy's new policeman husband does his best to restrain his wife's dangerous ferreting—especially after Prince and Grogan's security chief dies dramatically in the store—but to little avail . . . until Goldy becomes the killer's target in a frantic, near-ludicrous windup. Clunky plotting eased by a cheery heroine, an appealing Julian, lively, unpretentious prose, and those super-sounding low-fat recipes. Good-natured fun.